


alternate universes, briefcases, and kangaroos

by GiuGiu



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Dave Lives (Umbrella Academy), Fix-It, M/M, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25673377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GiuGiu/pseuds/GiuGiu
Summary: “You can see ghosts.” The man whispers like it’s a secret. “So, didn’t you think it was weird you haven’t seen me yet?”Oh. “Dave,” Klaus gasps.Dave is nodding and still grinning and he reaches out cautiously, waiting for Klaus to decide. Klaus absolutely falls into the man.Or, a familiar old man accosts Klaus in a diner because what goes around comes around.
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 44
Kudos: 570





	alternate universes, briefcases, and kangaroos

**Author's Note:**

> wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff

Klaus sips his iced coffee (and boy, the 60s really missed out on the delicacy of cold coffee) and stares blankly at his siblings.

“I say we kill them all,” Diego says quickly and efficiently, probably under the impression that if he says it fast enough everyone will just go with it.

“But what about Ben?”

“We couldn’t kill them even if we wanted to.”

“What about Dad?”

“They have a glowing death box!”

Klaus sighs. He gets up from his seat at the table, unnoticed, and follows the diner’s little arrow sign that directs him to a bathroom.

There’s a man standing by the bathroom door. He’s old, dressed in a perfectly ironed plaid button down and jeans, face wrinkled, sunspots on his hands, his hair is white and fluffy but not receding. And he has some stunning baby blues. Klaus considers him briefly. Yeah, he’d let him hit it.

“Ocupado?” he asks, gesturing at the door.

The man stares at him. 

And stares.

And stares.

And, okay, Klaus is still dressed like a goth cowboy but he didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Maybe the guy can’t hear him? He gives the guy a tight-lipped smile and reaches around him to check the door handle. It’s unlocked. 

He’s starting to get the heebie jeebies. Was the guy just waiting out here? “O-kay. I’m just gonna,” he makes a vague gesture and is about to slip into the tiny room when the guy puts a hand on his arm.

“ _Klaus_ ,” he whispers.

Klaus stumbles back and sucks in a surprised breath. The guy is looking at him in total recognition.

“Do I know you?” 

“I hope so.”

Klaus chuckles and takes another step back, he really wishes Ben was here. “Look, man,” Klaus can see his siblings still loudly planning murder across the quiet diner and tries to make eye contact with them but no one is looking his way. Typical. “I didn’t do it.”

The man frowns. “Didn’t do what?”

“Whatever it is you think I did, ok?”

The man grins. And Klaus really isn’t sure what’s happening. “You haven’t changed.” He takes a step towards Klaus and Klaus takes a step back. Distance is always good when some crazy guy thinks he knows you.

The man raises his hands placatingly, but his grin is getting bigger by the second. He looks way too excited for a guy standing outside a grungy bathroom with a flickering fluorescent light above them. “I don’t know who you are or who you think I am but-”

“You’re Klaus Hargreeves.”

Klaus has a bad feeling about this. 

“I don’t know you,” he tells the man. Was this guy a member of Destiny’s Children? The last thing Klaus needs right now is an old cult follower hanging around as his family figures out how to deal with being trapped in an alternate universe timeline.

“Then how come I know everything about you?”

Klaus groans. Shit. Fucking ancient cult follower. Dammit. He really fucked up this timeline, didn’t he?

He waves with his GOOD BYE hand and starts edging around the guy to go back to his table.

“Your favorite food is tacos.”

Klaus rolls his eyes and keeps edging around the man, who is doing his best to maintain eye contact.

“Your favorite song is _Dancing Queen_.”

Klaus stops and turns to fully look at this man. Oh.

“Your favorite book is _Finnegan’s Wake,_ which I tried to read but I really didn’t understand.”

Oh. Oh. Oh.

“You can see ghosts.” The man whispers like it’s a secret. “So, didn’t you think it was weird you haven’t seen me yet?”

Oh. _“Dave,”_ Klaus gasps. 

Dave is nodding and still grinning and he reaches out cautiously, waiting for Klaus to decide. Klaus absolutely _falls_ into the man. He smells different than what Klaus is used to and he feels different than what Klaus is used to, but he grips Klaus hard and sure and Klaus grips him back and they stand there, shaking and _whole again_ by the dingy diner bathroom.

As far as Klaus is concerned, he didn’t fuck up this timeline. _He fixed it._

“How?” he asks, face still firmly pressed into Dave’s shoulder. 

“I took the briefcase.”

Klaus jerks back, not completely out of Dave’s arms, but far enough that he can look at him. “What?”

Dave looks utterly ashamed. “You told me I was going to die. And I accepted that. I had been there for two years and I was ready to die. But then you came, and-” he takes a shaky breath and reaches up to caress Klaus’ cheek. Klaus lets his head rest in Dave’s hand, it feels like putting the last piece into a puzzle. A perfect fit.

“And it was beautiful, Klaus. That happened for you too, right?” Klaus nods quickly but Dave still looks like he’s about to admit to something horrible and it taints the bliss Klaus is feeling with something darker.

“It was beautiful. But then, February 21st passed and I didn’t die. I was fine. And I let my guard down and I’m so so sorry.” Klaus watches in horror as Dave’s eyes start to well up with tears. One falls down his cheek and Klaus reaches up to wipe it away.

“What happened?” Klaus asks, but he’s pretty sure he knows the answer.

“You _died.”_ Dave’s voice cracks on the word and he looks at Klaus with so much guilt in his eyes. “I wasn’t careful and you _died._ And I knew that wasn’t supposed to happen. I knew you were supposed to live. You hadn’t been to 1963 yet, there was something wrong.”

 _Ok_ , Klaus concedes. _I fucked up the timeline._

“So I took the briefcase. I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to look inside but then I was in 1970, in Australia and there was a kangaroo that-”

Klaus laughs.

He fucked up the timeline. But hey, if he’s dead in this timeline then he won’t have to worry about some evil version of himself coming out of the woodwork, right? One less problem for Five to rant about. 

He looks at Dave, wrinkled and weathered and utterly _alive._ Warm, breathing, and with all his blood inside his body. Dave’s looking at him like he expects Klaus to be mad. 

“I don’t care that I died, Dave. It wasn’t your fault, and I’m very alive right now.” 

Dave smiles hesitantly. 

“I’m sorry that I’m so old.” Dave whispers and Klaus’ heart breaks a little.

“David Katz,” Klaus says and takes Dave’s hands into his own. “I will take any time I can get with you.”

He presses his lips to Dave’s, waiting to see how Dave will react.

Dave kisses him back.

~~~ The Australian Outback, September 18th, 1970 ~~~

“What the heck,” Dave whispers to himself as he watches a very big kangaroo scoop Klaus’ magic briefcase into its pouch and hop away.

**Author's Note:**

> hey we got soldier!dave and kid!dave, maybe season three will give us geriatric!dave to get that full angst trifecta
> 
> i know this doesn't actually make sense... i don't care


End file.
